Friday, March 27, 2015

Gotta Drank(and Play)! RN74, Lava Lounge & Shorty's

Hello hello, Dammaged Goods coming at you live style from beautiful and green Seattle, Washington for this year's Emerald City Comicon! The event has sold out with attendance jumping a full 10,000 and expected to hit 80,000 attendees. We hopped a Virgin flight up yesterday afternoon and saw none other than voice of Duke and Prowl from G.I. Joe and Transformers as well as Sunbow Celebration guest Michael Bell in the terminal! Mr. Bell is working on a voice acting workshop and will be a guest at ECCC all weekend with a panel on Sunday. Our flight was filled with something like 60 Australian teenage middle schoolers who were traveling the northwest. I bought tix months ago and snagged Main Cabin Select which puts you right behind First Class. There's free booze and food but here's a tip, order as soon as you sit down because they ran out of Jack Daniels and Glenfiddich quick!

Landing in Seattle it was beautiful and pushing 70 degrees as we walked to the convention center to get my press pass and then around the Pike district for happy hour and supplies. I had scouted out RN74 on my Happy Hour hunt and as soon as we sat down we spotted some copper cups filled with Downtown Donkey's, their version of a Moscow Mule. Two of those please! But with Jameson. Alas, disappointment, it was literally a cup full of crushed ice and just really sour. Would have been better off going across the street to YardHouse because I know their mules are excellent. Food was good though, Deviled Eggs, Chinese Pigs in a Blanket, Sliders and the especially the Duck Fat Fries. Crisp, delicious with three dipping sauces, mmmmm. On Thursdays they also have oysters on the shuckin' shell but I've never had good experience with raw ones. Nice joint, good food but a little pricey for what we got.

Meeting up with some friends over in Belltown near the Space Needle we hit up tiki themed dive bar Lava Lounge. Apparently Ginger Beer is big in Seattle with many local brands. But they're like pop, not alcoholic like Crabbie's so no black out juice tonight...They had Street Fighter II: Championship or Turbo Edition in the back but I didn't get a chance to play. Right next door was Shorty's a Coney Island style joint with pinball machines as tables, who knows how old hot dogs on a 7-11 style roller thing and a room full of pinball machines along with a back room bar with awesome Captain chairs.

I tried my hand at X-Men because it had Jim Lee art but there were some old school ones like Centaur as well as Indiana Jones, Wizard of Oz and The Walking Dead machines. Cool spot. Again, Ginger Beer as a mixer versus a double booze hit. Then it was off to dinner at Buckley's, a sports bar with TV's at your table. A little much but people be loving that sportsball. A great kick off evening to what is sure to be a fun weekend. Pumped to see the exhibition floor and panel with The Flash John Wesley Shipp!